Utah Wastewater Variances: What you need to know

Governing Law and Regulations

Utah Water Quality Act, Utah Code Annotated (UCA) 19-5-101 to 123

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• Rules. Utah generally follows the federal requirements for issuing wastewater variances, and also has some additional requirements. See the national section WASTEWATER VARIANCES for additional guidance.

The state's Utah Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (UPDES) permits are Utah's version of the federal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Under the Utah Water Quality Act, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) permits and water quality standards include provisions for variance requests for fundamentally different factors (FDF), water quality variances, and variances from thermal discharge requirements. Other variances may be provided for extensions based on delay in completion of a publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) and on the use of innovative technology. The DEQ also allows variances to the design requirements for on-site wastewater systems.

• Administration and enforcement. DEQ's Division of Water Quality is fully authorized to administer and enforce the state's UPDES permit program, ...

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